The real heroes of this current coronavirus pandemic are the men and women in the health care industry who are on the front lines trying to keep us healthy. We owe them everything, especially since in many countries, they are currently overwhelmed trying to save lives.
Susan Ryan is an ER doctor based in Denver, Colorado. She is currently in the thick of the pandemic, however, she has someone special by her side: Wynn, a service dog in training.
Wynn goes to work with her every day. The one-year-old Labrador Retriever is being trained for Canine Companions – an organization that provides children, adults, and veterans with disabilities with service dogs for free. Susan has been raising Wynn since she was a puppy and has been training her for the year.
Wynn is quite familiar with the many faces of the hospital, however, her services as a service dog have never been more needed.
An EMT, Katie Basdekas, said, “I’ve met Wynn before!! She’s such a sweet pup and the doc is so amazing for what she does. She let me (I’m an EMT) hold on to her a few times while she was busy.”
During the time that Susan is off treating many different patients, Wynn has her own important job in Susan’s office, providing comfort for the rest of the hospital staff.
Susan shared with The Doglist, “She comes to the ER and stays within our social workers’ inner office, so no one touches her but staff can wash up and have a moment with her. She has saved us because we are very stressed and anxious. Sometimes too busy to be scared.”
The good doctor is urging people to stay safe during the pandemic, saying, “My wish for everyone would be that they not worry about getting a test and just presume themselves positive and consider every surface potentially contaminated and act accordingly. It just means physical distance, wash before and after touching anything.”
She added a little message from Wynn’s perspective, saying, “Sit. Stay. It’s just not that hard people.”
Susan finished off her post by saying, “We can find comfort in each other when we know I have your back and you have mine.”
Many people commented their thanks for all the hard work that the people of the healthcare industry are doing.
One person said, “Thank you so much for being on the front lines of this health crisis. We appreciate everything that healthcare workers are doing. Thank God for dogs, they are the angels that get us through tough times. Thank you and take care of yourself.”
Another person added, “Wynn is the bestest girl ❤️ Thank you for everything you are doing, Doctors, Nurses and Doggos 💕”.
And we can only say thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all that they’re doing. And let us send a reminder to everyone to stay home so we don’t have to overwhelm our healthcare workers anymore.
